OTTAWA, July 27, 2017 - The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) is proud to welcome two new researchers: Dr. Han Kim and Dr. Erin Mulvihill, and three new physicians: Dr. Talal Al-Atassi (Cardiac Surgery), and Drs. Adam Dryden and Brock Wilson (Anesthesiology). In addition, the Heart Institute also wants to thank Dr. Paul Hendry, and recognize his outstanding years of service, as he recently performed his last open-heart surgery, and hangs his surgical gloves!
Dr. Talal Al-Atassi received his medical degree from McGill University. He also completed a master in Public Health at Harvard University. He went on to do his cardiac surgery residency at the Heart Institute and acted as chief resident. Dr. Al-Atassi was an Advanced Aortic Fellow in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles, and a Structural Heart fellow in Emery Healthcare in Atlanta.
Dr. Adam Dryden did his anesthesiology training at the University of Alberta. He completed a fellowship in Cardiac Anesthesiology at the Heart Institute where he was selected as the 2016 recipient of the Wilbert J. Keon Award for Trainee Excellence. He is coming back to the Institute from the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton. Besides his clinical duties in cardiac anesthesiology and perioperative TEE, he will manage the Division’s information management system and will help facilitate perioperative database-related research.
Dr. Han Kim is the director of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Laboratory at the Heart Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kim obtained his PhD from the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Kim’s research program focuses on genetic and metabolic regulation of heart development, function and disease, with emphasis on obesity, diabetes and heart failure.
Dr. Erin Mulvihill is the Director of the Vascular and Metabolic Disease Research Laboratory at the Heart Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. She also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. With her expertise in lipids and lipoproteins, and in models of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Mulvihill aspires to improve the understanding of the molecular events which contribute to metabolic and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Brock Wilson is also one of our new cardiac anesthesiologists, and will also work as an intensivist in the Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit. He received his medical degree from the University of British Columbia and did his anesthesiology training at the University of Ottawa. He then completed a combined fellowship in Critical Care Medicine and Cardiac Anesthesiology at the University of Ottawa during which he won the 2016 Rick Hodder Scholarship Award at the Department of Critical Care Medicine Research Day.
Dr. Paul Hendry has been a key asset to the Heart Institute for over 30 years. He was the driving force behind the Ventricular Assist Devices Program which he led for two decades and performed countless implants and transplants. Dr. Hendry is highly regarded as an outstanding cardiac surgeon and educator and he recently received the Best Teacher Award from the Department of Surgery. Fortunately, Dr. Hendry will be transitioning to a new role as he will be providing outpatient and inpatient clinical expertise, as well as leadership with the Residency Program’s curriculum development.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) is Canada’s largest and foremost cardiovascular health centre dedicated to understanding, treating and preventing heart disease. UOHI delivers high-tech care with a personal touch, shapes the way cardiovascular medicine is practiced and revolutionizes cardiac treatment and understanding. It builds knowledge through research and translates discoveries into advanced care. UOHI serves the local, national and international community, and is pioneering a new era in heart health.
Contact:
Judith Lachance
Promotion and Communication Officer
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
613-696-7000 (17793)
613-806-0188 (cell)
jlachance@ottawaheart.ca
